CONCORD, N.C. — Danica Patrick believes her fans are still behind her despite a surprising loss in the fan vote to make the Sprint All-Star Race.

Josh Wise, who had the backing of Reddit.com Dogecoin community, won the Sprint Fan Vote to become the final qualifier into the all-star event Saturday night. The internet-based group waged an aggressive voting campaign.

“It is what it is,” said Patrick, who won the fan vote last year. “That’s what it is. It’s outside sources that are in control. I know my fans voted a lot and I understand that I actually had more votes this year than I did last year by a fair amount.

“I don’t doubt them at all. But it is what it is this time around.”

Patrick finished 10th overall Friday in the Sprint Showdown, where the top two finishers advanced to the all-star race. Clint Bowyer and AJ Allmendinger finishes 1-2 to earn spots in the all-star race. Wise finished 18th out of the 23 cars.

But Wise will get to race Saturday as the internet community that raised the $55,000 needed to sponsor him at Talladega also voted him into the all-star race.

"I am still trying to wrap my head around it," Wise said. "This is huge for me and our team. Really this started with a 16-year-old kid posting something on Reddit.com about some good runs that we had and for whatever reason this huge, awesome community got behind us."

Wise, who drives for Phil Parsons Racing and is 36th in the Cup standings for the underfunded organization, obviously was thankful for the support.

"This is kind of a big deal for our sport because it is a lot of young kids and people from around the world," Wise said. "I've had the chance to interact with a lot of them. There's a lot of people had never watched a NASCAR race who have now watched several."

As far as the potential for criticism that he gained votes by tech savvy youth who could sway the vote, Wise said he didn't care.

"People vote and the person with the most votes wins," Wise said. "It's however you play the game, I guess."

While Wise was not expect to advance by finishing in the top-two, Patrick was believed to have a chance. She restarted the final 20-lap segment in fifth but had only two fresh tires.

“Just wasn’t good enough today,” said Patrick, who was coming off a career-best seventh-place finish at Kansas last week. “Too tight especially in that second run. Got track position on two tires but I don’t know how many took four but it was just way too tight.”